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One thing I like to do when I GM is to provide visual aids representing the NPCs.
The way I do this is with the "headshots" provided of so many Paizo NPCS (do you know what I'm talking about? the art showing, for example, the faction heads in the Pathfinder Society Field Guide? there are literally dozens and dozens of examples of this kind of art across the product line).
What I do is either take the provided art (frequently labelled) or, if there isn't any, "reskin" some other headshot. I print the page off from a .pdf, then use a hobby knife to cut it out from the text around it. Then, with a glue stick, I mount it on a rectangle of black foam core board. I use a label maker to tag the art with the name I need if the provided label doesn't work, and then I take a triangle of cardstock and glue half of it to the back to act as prop so I can stand the whole thing up in front of my GM screen. Taken together with a graph I make up of voices/accents and speech mannerisms (an entry might read: Alexander Bedard —> Teddy Kennedy, for example) I usually do a pretty good job (I think, and my players seem to think) making memorable, distinct NPCs. (Hopefully this makes up for my fake it 'til you make it style when it comes to the fighty-fight bits).
This method worked great for The Blakros Matrimony and I'm gonna try it again next week with Murder on the Throaty Mermaid. Which leads me to a question for you good people.
I have dozens and dozens of pages of printouts with Paizo housestyled "headshots" and I'm sure I can find something for pretty much all of the dozen or so NPCs in that adventure who aren't already provided. With one exception. This is the description provided for the Throaty Mermaid's cook, Shira Acidaxe:
"Her time at sea has not been kind to her, and in addition to her tattered eye patch, she sports a mouth of silvered teeth, a nasty scar on her cheek, and is missing half of her left ear."
I'm not even going to try to match that perfectly, but can anybody remember any Paizo art that even comes close? I can't find any female dwarfs at all in my (extensive, but not exhaustive) collection of .pdfs. If I wasn't so married to the uniformity of look using the Paizo art gets me I suppose I might be able to find something on the internet, but I thought I'd ask here first.
PS I make the same kind of little standups using art from the Bestiaries for monsters, which kind of makes up for my limited selection of miniatures.
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Well, similar story, but it might help your case:
Paizo makes these decks of cards for NPC faces called just that: "face cards"
Back at GenCon 2012, I sat down with a player who sported a hat of disguise. I thought that was cool, because I had a bard with a hat of disguise as well, and was the only one I knew that had one. (now upgraded to a greater hat of disguise!) The coolest idea I saw was that he had purchased 1-2 of these decks and took out all the females from it to use as a supply of "personas" or "looks" for his character every time he switched using his hat. It was a great idea I adopted for my own.
long story to say you should look into the face cards, as they seem to be exactly what you are looking for. They are pre-printed so you don't have to waste ink, they have space in the back for you to write your notes, and they are very well produced.
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While I don't have a suggestion of existing Paizo artwork to use for Ms. Acidaxe, I love the use of headshots as a means of giving players a sense of who they're dealing with. So much so, in fact, that I requested an increase in the budget to accomodate more portrait art to go in future scenarios. For scenarios with large casts of characters, we'll likely always have some unillustrated NPCs, but I hope to build a library of reusable headshots of recurring characters to use as the campaign continues to grow.
I honestly thought that this was going to be an topic about ranged fighters targeting specific body parts.
But I love the idea of doing that. It's a little easier for me since I run scenarios from my tablet so I can just expand the portrait and show it to my players.
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I honestly thought that this was going to be an topic about ranged fighters targeting specific body parts.
But I love the idea of doing that. It's a little easier for me since I run scenarios from my tablet so I can just expand the portrait and show it to my players.
+1.
I do this, pulling the image out of the scenario, for most adventures I am running.
I just love the reactions that showing some of the headshots gets. Auntie Baltwin, for example, when running First Steps, Part 1. Watch a whole table try to be civil to her.
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I use the headshots from scenarios as well. I have been having my daughter capture the headshots with and make jpgs out of them that I'll past into a word document to print and cut out. Then I'll attach them to my DM Screen with a paperclip when the NPC makes an appearance.
I try to request or buy one item each visit from my the LGS I am running PFS at. So far, that has been filled up with purchasing recommended flip mats. When that is done, I hope to get the condition deck and buff deck, but after that, I might go for the face card deck.
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Pursuant to my original question, I wound up, for Shira Acidaxe, using the headshot for Haugen from p. 38 of Magnimar, City of Monuments.
I would have used Auntie Baldwin from First Steps I, but I just ran that for some of the same players last week and they would have remembered the art.
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Are there "official" portraits for the major NPCs in Blakros Matrimony? I was looking around, and couldn't find any.
Not currently, as we don't have the budget to do that many headshots for a single scenario. But many of the NPCs in that adventure will be appearing in later scenarios, and they should get headshots at that time.
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Are there "official" portraits for the major NPCs in Blakros Matrimony? I was looking around, and couldn't find any.Not currently, as we don't have the budget to do that many headshots for a single scenario. But many of the NPCs in that adventure will be appearing in later scenarios, and they should get headshots at that time.
Well, I suppose that's understandable. :) Good to know they may show up later, anyway. I'll back fill when that happens!
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I have headshots now of all the faction heads and of Sheila Heidmarch, but need to beef up my collection of Venture-Captains, especially those prominent in earlier seasons. My immediate need is Drandle Dreng. Has he been painted and printed in any of the scenarios (or other sources)? Seems like I vaguely remember a different Dreng in one of my books, but not him.
Edit: Aha! Never mind. Just needed to read a page further on in #3-02 to find the headshot. Hmmm, he does look exactly like "Declan" Dreng from Seekers of Secrets doesn't he? What's the story there, I wonder...
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Hmmm, he does look exactly like "Declan" Dreng from Seekers of Secrets doesn't he? What's the story there, I wonder...
"Drendle" is a nickname he had as a child, and tried to distance himself from when he became a Pathfinder. He signed up as "Declan", his given name, and got his portrait done with that name. Unfortunately, some of his family came to visit one time, called him "Drendle", and once his coworkers heard that, it was all over.
"Hey, there, Dreeeendle!" "How's it going, Dreeeendle?" "Is that a new dreidl, Dreeeeendle?"
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Yup. Every time you call him Drendle, he gets you back by waking you at 2 am to go on another deadly mission.
"Yes, its urgent that you leave right NOW (to get yourself killed) for this mission that I have known about for 3 months, but needs to be completed within 3 hours."
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Yup. Every time you call him Drendle, he gets you back by waking you at 2 am to go on another deadly mission.
"Yes, its urgent that you leave right NOW (to get yourself killed) for this mission that I have known about for 3 months, but needs to be completed within 3 hours."
Annnddd.. he wonders why folks set fire to his beard, cast prestidigitation on him to make him turn green just before a meeting. Alter his clothing to make him think he's growing. Replace the ink in his ink pot with vanishing ink.
Of course that could be that my wizard is a minx with a prankster familiar as an accomplice.
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Has Venture-Captain Brackett, VC in the Andoren capital of Almas, received headshot treatment anywhere that anyone knows of? Or have suggestions for a headshot for a human man described as a "middle-aged swordsman who is fastidious and professional in his duties?" I'm prepping Tide of Twilight and want to make face cards for him and for the gnome herbalist and Pathfinder agent Falbin of Wispil (so any suggestions for one of him are welcome as well).
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OK - is there a way to get a picture imported into Hero Lab? I know this is sadly off topic, but I figured since you guys are so good at the art thing you might be able to help.
Go to the Personal tab of the character you want to import a picture for. There on the right is a gallery section, click "Click to add another". A gray silhouette should have popped up. Click on the silhouette and just browse for the picture you want.
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WARNING: Possible alteration of thread Detected!
OK - is there a way to get a picture imported into Hero Lab? I know this is sadly off topic, but I figured since you guys are so good at the art thing you might be able to help.
YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR NORMAL TOPIC AFTER ANSWERING MY QUERY
lol
Assuming you mean importing a graphic to represent a PC in the Personal tab, under the Gallery section, just click on the silhouette, navigate your hard drive to locate the graphic file, and click on it and select "Open".
Formats HeroLabs can read:
JPG
PNG
BMP
GIF
TGA
If you want a second graphic on a PC there, just click on the "Click to add another" line to add another graphic slot.
[/end derail]
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Are there "official" portraits for the major NPCs in Blakros Matrimony? I was looking around, and couldn't find any.Not currently, as we don't have the budget to do that many headshots for a single scenario. But many of the NPCs in that adventure will be appearing in later scenarios, and they should get headshots at that time.
Is there a headshot of Hamaria Blakros specifically out there in any of the Blakros-related scenarios? In the alternative, any suggestions on a good fill-in?
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Is there a headshot of Hamaria Blakros specifically out there in any of the Blakros-related scenarios? In the alternative, any suggestions on a good fill-in?Are there "official" portraits for the major NPCs in Blakros Matrimony? I was looking around, and couldn't find any.Not currently, as we don't have the budget to do that many headshots for a single scenario. But many of the NPCs in that adventure will be appearing in later scenarios, and they should get headshots at that time.
I used a headshot of Judy Dench. It seemed appropriate.
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Yup. Every time you call him Drendle, he gets you back by waking you at 2 am to go on another deadly mission.
"Yes, its urgent that you leave right NOW (to get yourself killed) for this mission that I have known about for 3 months, but needs to be completed within 3 hours."
hehe. I was shocked to recently play First steps part 3 and be summoned by Dreng at 10:00 am. It must have been urgent - it couldn't wait until 3:00 am :)